You Can't Take Her
by i1i1wow
Summary: Izuku and Ochako say goodbye. Shigaraki inherits All For One. What could go wrong?
1. Goodbye

**Warning: High emotional volatility in this story. Snowflakes, go home.**

Izuku, Ochako, and Tsuyu had just finished an outdoor training exercise and were having a break.

A sixteen-year-old Izuku watched in horror as Tomura Shigaraki rose from the ground like a zombie.

"Like my new entrance, Deku?"

Izuku half-screamed, half-shouted as Tomura inched closer.

"Step out of the way, Deku. I'm not here for you. I'm here for your little princess!" Tomura gave a grinchy smile.

Izuku gasped as he realized that he was talking about Ochako, his best friend that stood beside him, the one that encouraged him recently even more than All Might did, the one he had acquired a strange fixation on that dominated his bedtime thoughts, which seemed to overrule any other reasoning in his mind.

"I said step aside!" Tomura demanded.

"Why do you think we'd listen to you?!" Tsuyu responded.

"Oh, you're the one with the Frog quirk, right? Lick me!" Tomura dared.

Tsuyu shook her head.

"Well, I'm not here for games this time, Deku."

A hand reached up from the ground, grabbing Ochako's foot with four fingers.

"There are only two options here, Deku. Let me kidnap her, or force me to kill her."

Izuku was about to break. But before he could respond, Tsuyu did. "We're not susceptible to your mind games, Tomura. You want to kidnap Uravity to dishearten Deku, right? Well, here at UA, we put our heroics first. Doing something to Ochako would not faze Midoriya. Of all of the people in our class, he is the most steadfast person besides Iida."

"You're just trying to trick me…"

"No, really, what you're doing is pointless. Do you remember how your kidnapping of Bakugo went? And where's that guy with those little balls that captures people?"

"Gah! How could I forget?! Capturing her would have been so much easier if I had him do it. What a waste of my time." The hand on Ochako's foot let go, and it and Tomura sunk into the ground.

"Let's go get some coffee. You know there's a coffee shop right next to the visitor's center?" Tsuyu related.

Izuku and Ochako followed her without a word.

Izuku was a mess. Somehow, they had just walked away from _that_.

A minute and a few seconds later they were entering the coffee shop, sitting down at a table.

"Man, I didn't think that lie was going to work!" Tsuyu stated.

There was a pause. They were all looking at each other.

Izuku burst into tears. Ochako started to cry as well.

"Guys, everything's okay. Guys?" Tsuyu responded.

Ochako instinctively leaned into Izuku's torso, tears exacerbating.

Izuku wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. He was mumbling very fast and incoherently.

Tsuyu exhaled in frustration, seeing that the two seemingly had no capacity to respond. "Hey! Didn't Shigaraki say he was sending Mr. Compress?"

Izuku and Ochako looked over at Tsuyu. They were very pale.

"Wait, no, if he had still thought it was worthwhile, he would have kidnapped you right there. We're in the clear."

Izuku and Ochako exhaled in relief. Then they looked at each other, realizing the position they were in. Izuku quickly retracted his arm and Ochako quickly scooted away from him, both with faces that might have been red had they not been so pale before.

"I'm going to order," Tsuyu stated. Her easygoing vibe glossed over their extreme reaction. "Do you guys want anything?"

"I'm good," Ochako stated. She sounded high.

"Green tea, please," Izuku requested. Then he realized that green tea sounded like the first part of Ochako's name, and the object marking particle exacerbated the similarity. He did his best to ignore that and act like the thought had never crossed his mind, but it almost sounded like he wanted Tsuyu to give him Ochako. (お茶 **を** ください。versusお茶 **子** ください。)

"Small, medium, or large?" Tsuyu asked.

"Large," he blurted. What was wrong with him?

"Okay, coming right up!" Tsuyu left to order.

There was a small silence.

Ochako covered her head with her hands. "I—I honestly just want to cry. I thought my life was over."

"I'm sorry." Izuku could feel the tears coming in again. "I couldn't save you. If Tsuyu hadn't done quick thinking and talked us out of there…" He covered his face with his arm. He knew what he had to do. He clenched his teeth.

"Deku…"

"I'm so worthless! I couldn't even protect you when you were right next to me!"

"You didn't let on that Tsuyu was lying. That's what got us out of there."

"I'm surprised I even did _that_. If they had kidnapped you, I don't know what I'd do with myself."

"Deku…" She couldn't think of anything to say. Did he just confess love for her?! No…

"I mean, it almost happened! It should have happened! If it weren't for Tsuyu's smooth talk, it would have happened! Make—make sure you don't go places alone, and be extra careful, okay?" He sounded very shaken.

"Why does the League of Villains care so much about you anyway?"

"Um…" He turned his face away.

"Is it a secret?"

"I'd really … like it if I could tell you, but you might get into further danger if I tell you."

"Oh." Ochako looked disappointed.

The conversation fell dead.

Izuku mustered all of his self-control. "In—In fact, I would, uh, recommend that you stop being close friends with me, for your safety." His voice cracked. The words sounded very forced and fake. He wanted to take those words back and stomp on them. He felt a sharp stabbing pain in his heart. "Nothing too extreme, you know, it just is in your best interest to keep a bit more distance… I'm not saying that we shouldn't be friends! In-fact-I-want-us-to-get-closer! I-just-want-to-make-sure-you're-safe, andthat'swhyIsaidthat. Maybewecouldthinkaboutthismorecreativelyinstead!"

Izuku went off on a muttering marathon.

"Deku, our friendship should never be about anything outside of us. As for this whole thing, don't worry. Just live your life the way that you want to live it. If the villains can get you to isolate yourself, then they have already won a very large battle."

"That is correct. The way they have come after me the past few days has been horrendous. I didn't foresee them coming after my friends, too. They like striking infrequently enough for me to be caught off guard, but within that, as often as possible."

Their phones dinged.

The texts read "Iida has been murdered by assassins from the Villain Alliance." It was from Todoroki.

Midoriya also got a text from All Might in the exact same moment. It struck him at his core.

Midoriya covered his face with his hands. "Please stay away from me, before they decide you're worth killing. From now on, we need to act like we don't know each other." His voice deadpanned. "It's been nice knowing you, Ochako." Emotion seeped into his voice as he began to break down.

Ochako broke into tears. Him using her first name felt like the sealant lining the coffin of their relationship. She used to think how wonderful it would be for him to use it. Now it stung like a barb. It was a sign that the barriers of concern for her thoughts were shot through. She thought he was just being insecure about her safety unnecessarily, but now she knew the truth.

Tsuyu came back. "Midoriya, your green—tea?" Then she noticed they were bawling their eyes out. "What's—wrong?"

"Don't check your phone," Uraraka warned.

Tsuyu responded by checking her phone in curiosity. "Iida is dead?! That's … so weird. We just saw him a couple hours ago… Is he really dead?" Tsuyu dialed up Iida. "Hi Iida—wait, that's just his voicemail instruction message. Oh, it's about to beep. Hey, Iida! Just wanted to check on you to see how things are doing. Todoroki says you're dead. Heh, seems like that practical joke went too far…"

"Todoroki doesn't make practical jokes," Midoriya responded.

"Anyway, just wanted to see how you're doing. See you later!" She hung up. "You guys look miserable. Do you guys want to head back?"

"N—N—No! No, I want to drink my green tea here. Do you guys want to hang out with me here while I drink my tea?"

"I'm bailing. See you later!" Tsuyu left.

"Could you stay here just for now, while I drink my tea?" Izuku pleaded. He was glad he had gotten a large now; he had more to sip at, which meant more time with Ochako.

"S—Sure!" Ochako responded. She felt like once she left, she would never have any relationship with him again.

"I—There's so much I want to say," Izuku started. "To you, I mean. But now I can't think of anything."

"Same here." This seemed like the perfect time to confess her feelings for him, considering that she wanted to be with him, but since their time was waning, she didn't bring it up; it wouldn't make a difference, except for exacerbating the pain.

"I just never thought this would change. I thought we would always be friends."

"I thought so too. Things in life don't always happen like you plan."

There was a moment of silence.

Izuku started slowly sipping at his tea.

Ochako felt like he was sipping from her heart, slowly draining it of all of its hope. She realized she needed a question, something to get him talking again. "Do you think we'll know each other when we're older?"

"Who knows? I'd like to think I'd be past this by then—…Ochako, what makes you happy?"

There it was again. He used her first name. He used it like it was just her last name. He just said it, like it was no big deal. And it wasn't, since their friendship was basically ending. "Um, saving people makes me happy, spending time with my parents, hanging out with friends, watching fireworks, eating good food, getting stronger, shopping with the girls, doing training exercises, falling asleep… What makes you happy, Izuku?"

Izuku felt the impact. Now he realized why he maybe shouldn't have switched to her first name. It felt like she had torn right into his childhood. He could imagine a tiny young Uraraka calling him Izuku. "Well, collecting All Might memorabilia—Augh! Why is that the first thing I say?"

Ochako laughed. "You're such a nerd."

"I know, I know…"

"What else makes you happy?"

"Being with my mom, collecting, uh, profiles of heroes in notebooks—"

"You almost said collecting All Might memorabilia again, didn't you?!"

"Hey, I have a lot on my mind!" Izuku took a gulp of green tea.

"One of these days, you're going to give birth to one of those All Might dolls."

"Been there, done that…"

"What?!"

"When I was little, I swallowed one of those little plastic All Might figurines, and well, I had to go to the hospital, because it got stuck … at the end."

"That's just like a real pregnancy! Did you have contractions?"

"What's a contraction?"

"You men are so lucky."

"Why?" Izuku got another big gulp.

"You'll find out when you get married."

Izuku stopped. "I—don't think I'll ever marry."

"Why not?"

"It'll get—in the way of my hero work, and—I can't imagine someone wanting to marry me. It's just not a good fit."

"Of course someone would want to marry you! You just have to find the right one."

"Yeah… I don't think that'll pan out."

"Then, what are you going to do with it? If you're not going to get your trailer hitched, what are you going to do with it?"

"I'm confused."

"Are you just going to be alone for your whole life? Do you want kids?"

"I do want kids. Wait, I want kids?"

"So, what are you going to do about that?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem to fit in my life at all."

"Maybe it should."

"It can't happen. I'm a walking target for villains, and even if that changes, no one would ever like me, and if they did, I'd never know it, let alone have the courage to move forward."

"You'd be surprised how quickly things change."

Izuku drank more of his green tea. "I doubt that'll ever happen." He started to tear up again. "I just, don't know how to be the manly man they all want. Maybe I would if my father had been there, I would know."

"Be courageous! Even if it means being afraid in the midst of it." Why was she giving him love advice? She wanted him to stay single so she could nab him! But she couldn't help herself; she wanted to encourage him so badly.

"I don't think I can do that. I've been hurt … too much before."

Izuku flashed back to what Katsuki said to him when they were little. "Girls don't like quirkless boys, and even if you did have a quirk, no one would date you, because you're a nerd! The curly hair makes it even worse!" Katsuki had said. Then the others laughed at him.

Izuku continued. "It was a long time ago, but those kinds of wounds don't really seem to heal."

"All the more reason why you should get married." _To me_. She caught herself before she said something that would ruin her. She didn't like him THAT much, right?

"That's a nice thought. Do you plan on getting married?"

"I have no idea. I have had a funny feeling that romance would just spring up on me, but that hasn't happened."

"Maybe you should take your own advice, and be courageous." He didn't feel good about this, for whatever reason.

"No, I don't think that would work now…" _because I missed my chance_. She reminded herself that confessing now would just make things way worse. She wanted to tell him so badly, the opposite of how she normally felt.

He drank another mouthful. "Well, don't feel pressured to do it. Balance what you want and what you think is best." He went for another mouthful, but realized that the cup was empty.

The cup thudded on the table unceremoniously.

"I—I finished my tea." This was the moment they had been dreading.

"Oh. Is this when we go?"

"Not necessarily. Um, is there anything else you want to do? You know, besides getting married someday?"

Ochako's subconscious somehow took from the tone that he meant them and that it was no big deal while her conscious mind didn't grasp any of that notion. "I want to have kids, become an architect when I can't do hero work anymore, try an American burger, make a satellite-view YouTube series when I learn to float myself for long periods of time, I want to visit Madagascar, and I want to see a peacock in real life." Ochako laughed "That's kind of my bucket list. And you?"

"I want to protect people, and make them feel safe. That's what drives me. That's why we're separating now."

That's when Ochako realized that the sun was down, the last employee was turning the lights off.

"Hey, are you guys still there? We're closing!" the employee said.

"Oh, sorry!" Midoriya responded. He and Uraraka got up quickly, and walked out of the coffee shop. As the doors closed behind them, the lights went out inside the shop.

They started walking, Izuku using his phone's flashlight to light their path.

"I can walk you back to the dormitory building, but that's as far as I go," Izuku stated.

"Wait, you're not going to the dormitory building? Why not?" Ochako asked.

Izuku wore a terrible frown on his face, giving no vocal response.

"That's as far as I go. That is all."

Ochako wanted to cry. The way he was acting, she felt like she'd never see him again. She never would have thought so much could go wrong in so little time. Just three hours ago, it was a normal day of training. Now, she had to face something she had never prepared for.

They were so consumed with their feelings for each other that they had almost forgotten Iida had died. If they would be shown the footage, though, they'd never forget it.

"Izuku," Ochako started. Tears were welling up in her eyes. "Of my three closest friends, I've already lost one and I'm about to lose you."

Izuku looked away. If he listened to her, he would just lose it.

"Are you ignoring me?!"

Izuku gulped.

"Say something to me, at least!"

"Please don't make this any harder than it has to be."

"I don't want you to go!"

"This is life, Uraraka. … You can't just have everything you want… No. No. No! I can't take this anymore!" Izuku wrapped his arms around Ochako, falling into a mess of tears.

Ochako also cried on the spot. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could.

All of their pent-up emotions spilled out everywhere.

As long as they were crying, they held each other, and when their eyes could cry no longer, they almost released each other.

"Ochako, we're floating. Don't release me yet." Deku used his quirk to blow air upwards to get them close to the ground. "Okay, now."

Ochako released him and they both fell inches to the ground.

"Goodbye, Ochako Uraraka," Izuku finished.

Ochako tried to respond, but all she could do was suck in air. She ran after him, grabbing his shoulder. "Goodbye, Izuku Midoriya." Then she released her grip and watched as he walked out of sight.

Then she followed him, making sure he didn't notice her, watching as he got into a car with All Might driving it.

"Took you long enough," All Might remarked. "All your belongings have already been packed. We're going straight there."

Izuku nodded and got in the car.

Then the car drove off into the night.

Urararka heard her phone ding.

We can still text, right? -Midoriya

Of course! -Uraraka

I won't have reception anywhere near where I'm going, so if I don't respond, that means I've entered the dead zone. I won't exit the dead zone later, so until my training ends, this is it. -Midoriya

When does it end? -Uraraka

No time soon. -Midoriya

One more thing. Um, today was very hard for me. Please don't try to contact me after the training. It'll just make me feel even worse. -Midoriya

No promises. -Uraraka

There is one thing that bugs me about this whole thing. -Midoriya

What? -Uraraka

I have this weird thing where I think about you a lot. I don't do it for anyone else. I have no idea when it started. It's probably why things got so ugly back there. Sorry that I called you by your first name. That was impolite. -Midoriya

Uraraka's heart sunk. He had just unwittingly confessed his love for her! She didn't even think that was possible.

Don't worry about it. -Uraraka

In All Might's Car, All Might spoke to Midoriya. "Whatever game you're playing on your phone, finish it up. We're losing connection pretty soon."

Cry for me at Iida's funeral. Losing reception soon. -Midoriya

I love you. -Uraraka (あいしてる)

Midoriya jumped in his seat when he saw it. "What?!" he typed. (何) He pressed Send as fast as he could. It didn't send. He had lost reception.

"No…" She tried to walk it back as fast as she could, but the text wouldn't send on her side either. "I wasn't thinking! What did I just send?!" she screamed. "NO!"

 **Review if you want more. }:) You know you want it. I'm so mean. It takes me a long time to write these things, and I'm low on motivation. Who knows, maybe you could … pop a REVIEW into the review box below and motivate me a little bit more. (insert Garfield emoji) I'm testing out different story ideas, seeing if I want to stick with one.**


	2. Attack on UA

Izuku woke up in a pool of sweat.

He looked around panicked, not knowing where he was.

He remembered his nightmare. In it, Shigaraki had inflicted irreversible decay onto Ochako, who couldn't even manage to say anything to him before dropping dead. He looked back at his phone.

The text was still there. What had she meant?! Was she just saying "I love you" like a friendly goodbye? Or did she mean the love kind of love?!

Izuku remembered then where he was and what had happened. It overcame him like a tsunami of feelings.

"I—I just lost almost everything that was important to me," he realized. Up to middle school, he had had no friends and had been very alone. Going to UA High changed all of that, and what really changed was gaining his quirk. Now, he was training in a remote location for the rest of his high school life to protect the others. But what was left for him now? He didn't know any of these people. He had no connection to the outside world.

He got up, and looked to the clock, memories flooding into his mind from the middle of the night.

 _Wake up at 6:30 at the LATEST. Remember, you must be ready by 7!_

The clock read 6:22.

* * *

Ochako woke up. Smiling at the ceiling, she stretched her arms up. The events of the night before were not on her mind. She didn't remember how sleepless she had been seven hours ago. She got ready to go out the door. Class would start soon.

She went through her morning routine. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

She began to hum. When she was ready, she set out the door.

When she went into Mr. Aizawa's class, Mr. Aizawa was looking extra shifty. "Our first order of business today is to elect a new class representative. If you are interested in this position, please raise your hand."

Yaoyorozu, Mineta, and Aoyama raised their hands.

It didn't click in Ochako's mind that Iida was dead. It didn't click in any of the students' minds who hadn't witnessed the incident.

"Everyone, fetch a 3x5 and vote for your candidate of choice."

People got out cards and started writing.

Ochako wrote, in the prettiest handwriting she could, "八百万百", which is Yaoyorozu Momo.

Then they were passed back to the teacher.

Mr. Aizawa looked over them, counting on his two hands; he assumed Mineta would only get one vote: his own, and that assumption proved to be correct. "Our new class representative is Yaoyorozu. Now, class rep, please lock the doors. The subject matter today is very intense, and I don't want to see any of you trying to run away from it. This is a very important exercise today."

The class looked confused.

"There's no lock on this door, Mr. Aizawa," Yaoyorozu stated.

"Make one, and keep the key safe," Mr. Aizawa ordered.

"Wait, this can't be what I think this is, right?" Sero muttered.

Mr. Aizawa turned on the projector. A bright light shot to the front of the classroom.

Then Mr. Aizawa pressed play.

"No…" Sero muttered.

On the screen, Iida could be seen speeding in from the left, nearly hitting Kirishima. Then Kaminari made some lame joke that got them all laughing.

"That's no fair. I wasn't ready!" Sero pouted onscreen.

"You still laughed!" Kaminari responded, also onscreen. Then Shigaraki could be seen grabbing Iida's neck from behind.

"This one's Izuku's best friend, isn't it?" Shigaraki questioned.

None of them could do anything but watch as Iida decayed, screaming and wailing with the voice of a breaking man, his cry loud and composure-shattering.

Everyone started to cry.

Iida's cries got louder and louder.

The onscreen Todoroki tried to shoot ice at Shigaraki, and the onscreen Sero tried to use his tape to save Iida, but the tape was intercepted by a villain he had never seen before, who also negated the ice.

Then Iida's cries stopped.

Eventually, Iida's body seemed like carrion.

"Let this be a message to you all. Heroism is rewarded with death in this world," Shigaraki spouted.

The clip ended.

Mr. Aizawa looked back at the class. "We'll replay this until every one of you keeps a straight face."

"No, please! Mr. Aizawa! Don't play it again!" Uraraka cried.

Ashido used her acid to melt the lock, running out, the others following her.

"Spectacular," Mr. Aizawa deadpanned. "There's a word for this if they can't overcome it… Trauma. It would have been better if they hadn't seen it in the first place."

They all left for the rest of the period. Mr. Aizawa wasn't going to discipline them for not wanting to see that. He was just hoping it would grow them as heroes. None of them seemed capable of handling it.

Outside the classroom, Ochako embraced Tsuyu, crying on her shoulder. "Iida's dead, and Midoriya's gone, and I told Midoriya I loved him over text! I wasn't thinking, and—"

Then she realized everyone was looking at her.

"This is a private conversation!"

"It's not a private conversation when you're that loud," Tokoyami stated.

Ochako was so embarrassed. "Tsu, let's, uh, find someplace to talk…" She was almost expecting Iida to pop up and tell them to stay with the class, but that didn't happen.

Tsuyu looked sympathetically at Ochako as they left for a private place, just outside the building. "You confessed to him accidentally over text?"

"Yeah…"

"Why would you do that?"

"Because… I don't know! I just want to take it all back! He'll think ill of me for texting him something like that!"

"Let me see the text."

Ochako navigated to it on her phone and showed Tsuyu.

"Hmm. Be thankful you didn't use kanji. Otherwise, you couldn't call it a typo. You wrote ' **あ** いしてる'. Tell him that you meant ' **か** いしてる' if he asks about it." (愛 介 or 解)

"Tsuyu, could that really work?"

"So, you sent this right before his phone lost reception?"

"Yep."

"Man, only you could pull this off."

Then they heard some explosions.

"Tsuyu, what's that purple smoke coming out of the classroom building?" Her voice showed alarm.

"Float us out of here," Tsuyu advised. "The League of Villains has struck again. If I had to guess, I'd guess that they're all dead."

Then they saw Yaoyorozu running out with a gas mask carrying Todoroki. She clearly only had time to guard her own lungs from the fumes.

Todoroki looked dead, and he nearly was. Whatever gas it was, it was "mildly" lethal.

"We need to get out of here. Uraraka, you and I are good at moving away from an area fast. Take Momo on your back." Tsuyu grabbed the unconscious Todoroki and sent her tongue out grabbing onto something, pulling her and Todoroki towards it very fast. Uraraka warmed up, grabbing Momo and floating her before making Tsuyu and Todoroki float.

They did this all just in time, too. The building was collapsing and nomus could be seen emerging beside the building. The building fell upon where they had been a moment ago.

They fled to the nearest hospital.

Uraraka fidgeted as she watched the hospital's television. They had taken Todoroki to the ER.

On the news was apocalypse-like news for them. The League of Villains had completely wiped out UA High.

Momo cries a dearth of tears. She didn't even have enough to number their lost classmates. It seemed like hardly a response for what had just happened.

"Is he going to make it?" Tsuyu asked.

The nurse responded. "We really can't tell. We are filtering the toxins out of his body, but he might not pull through. Had you brought him five minutes later, he wouldn't have a chance."

"Come on, Todoroki! You can do it!" Yaoyorozu called. She knew he couldn't hear her.

"They're all dead…" Ochako realized. "And if I hadn't sent that text, I never would have pulled you out of there to talk to you, and we both would've died."

"Yep, that's how things went down," Tsuyu responded. "You're lucky. You know that, right?"

"Yeah…" _Why am I still alive? Why not Iida, or Kirishima, or Hagakure, or Iida…_

"We'll get through this, Ochako."

Ochako gasped. "My parents are probably in despair! I have to tell them I'm alive!" Ochako dialed her mom.

"We should probably do that too with our parents, Momo," Tsuyu realized.

"Mom! It's me, Ochako!" Ochako stated.

Ochako's mother was shocked. "Ochako?! You're alive?! We thought you died! Honey, Ochako's alive!"

"Don't worry about me. I'm not injured. Asui, Yaoyorozu and I escaped unharmed. Todoroki's in critical condition. The others are all dead, except for Midoriya, but I guess he wasn't attending UA at all when the attack happened."

"Thank goodness you are okay! Be sure to come home soon."

"I will, Mom."

There was a pause.

"Love you."

"Love you too, mom."

"Goodbye then. See you soon!"

Ochako hung up, exhaling much air.

Meanwhile, Tsuyu called her mom.

"Tsuyu, is that you?"

"Yeah, mom, and I'm okay."

"We were so worried about you! Are you hurt?"

"No."

"Come back home soon, sweetie. Your father still thinks I'm talking into the phone to trick him."

"Okay, mom. I'll come by tonight."

"Stay safe!"

"Will do, mom."

Tsuyu hung up.

Momo called her mom.

"Momo?"

"Have you seen the news, mom?"

"Yeah."

"I just called to tell you … that I'm alive!"

"Good. You come from too rich of a family to die young."

"Yeah, hehe… Goodbye!"

Her mother hung up.

Momo burst into all of the tears that wouldn't come before.

The nurse entered the room again. "The patient isn't going to wake up anytime soon. Unless you don't have somewhere better to be, you should probably go. You're taking up visitor seats."

"What's her problem?" Ochako complained under her breath.

They left shortly thereafter.

* * *

"Did you kill All Might?" Shigaraki hissed.

"Yes, sir. All Might must be dead." The low-level minion wagged his tail.

"Good, and Midoriya?"

"He must be dead."

"Did you find his body in the building?"

"No."

"Then he's not dead!" Shigaraki bellowed. He grabbed the minion's neck with four fingers. "Wait, did you find All Might's body?! Why, I ought to—Urgh, it's not your fault if Midoriya wasn't there in the first place." He tossed the minion to the side. "Wait, did you find All Might's body?"

"Does a cardboard cutout count?"

"NO." Shigaraki grabbed the minion's neck again, this time with five fingers, and the minion decayed away.

"I will find you, All Might and Midoriya, and I will give you death!" Then he laughed. "I'm so glad One for All was able to give me all of his quirks before he passed on. Even his original power is mine. As you all know, he lived much longer than anyone else. That is now me. Twenty-four hours ago, I had not a millionth of the power I have now. Even you, Overhaul, are much stronger with the quirks I bestowed upon you. I can see why he kept these quirks all to himself, though. Man, this is going to be fun, taking over the world. I want to face maximum resistance, too. As long as I can extinguish All for One, or take it as my own, I shouldn't lose, but I doubt I'll be able to steal One For All like I can with other quirks… Do you know the history of these powers?"

"No, sir." Overhaul kept his eyes on Shigaraki.

"Well, they're artificial. I can't say any more about that. Don't want to endanger my inherited secret intellectual property…" He cleared his throat loudly. "At any rate, I want you to be my left-hand man. Kurogiri's already my right-hand man. I can relate to your attitude much more than most, and you're very loyal to evil."

"Yes. Sir? There is a girl from the campus I retrieved. She was a visitor to the school. My estranged daughter… I can use her blood to take away people's quirks permanently."

"Ooh, we have to see if this works on Midoriya…"

"Do you see no other use for it?"

"Well, I should be able to steal most quirks. Hmm, we're going to be so filthy rich after this! We'll have plenty to celebrate once we kill all the heroes."

* * *

Midoriya wasn't used to this. He had never trained his body this hard, not even in the months he trained to receive One For All.

He lifted rocks the size of cars, carrying them from one place to another.

Their drill sergeant, err…, teacher yelled at them. "Harder! Faster! More energetic!"

Izuku wanted to fall over and sleep, but he couldn't do that. Not now.

This school only taught people with strength quirks. Izuku could see the gnarly muscles on many of his classmates. He felt like he was in a communist manual labor center.

He pushed himself harder. He couldn't take this much longer.

He set down the rock in the designated spot for it and leaned against it, panting heavily.

He was wet with sweat. After a moment, though, he returned to the exercise.

They were split up into teams, and his team was losing.

He knew that if he could just push through, he could do this.

He thought of All Might, the hero on the hill, but it didn't give him drive. Then Ochako crossed his mind.

"あいしてる" Ochako had said.

Izuku's mind went into overdrive. Was she accidentally giving him a greeting that she only gave her parents? Was it a typo? Was she confessing her love to him?!

"Hey, look, the new kid's pushing harder again. Not as weak as I thought." The guy who related this was Kenfurume Wakadou. (若胴・賢古目) (OC)

Izuku got one more rock to his territory before giving out.

The teacher rang the bell. "Alright, time to count the rocks!"

Izuku's team had 56. The opposing team had 58.

"Losers have to clean the bathrooms!" the teacher reminded. "It's time for lunch! Exit the training arena in an orderly fashion.

Izuku got his lunch as the line moved in the cafeteria. While this school was secretive, in a remote location, and it only trained people with strength quirks, it wasn't small.

He walked up the table where his former teammates were sitting.

"Hey, guys!" Izuku greeted.

"Midoriya, is it?" a girl asked.

"Yep."

"Sit down! Don't just stand there like a doofus."

Izuku sat down quickly.

"My name's Katara Ine, but call me Inawara." (稲わら・語ら) "This here is Kenfurume Wakadou, Oushi Kotori (小鳥・牡牛), call him Tori, and—"

 **I'm really out of ideas for OC names. Don't worry, the OCs aren't going to take over the story. You'll see that they're not very important. You just can't have everyone introducing themselves as Marumaru, however. And I kind of killed off a lot of characters, so I'm going to need OCs. T_T Sad, right? I'm so tired… Will I ever update this story… I hope so. I think so.**


	3. Field Trip

Uraraka arrived home. Her mother welcomed her in with open arms.

"Ochako, I am so glad you're back home!" her mother exclaimed, embracing her fervently.

Her father joined in the group hug.

"I just … we thought you were gone." Ochako's father was a mess of tears.

Ochako began to cry too as she was reunited with her parents.

"This is like a dream. I thought I had become one of _those_ parents, the ones who everyone thinks they'll never be. You never think it'll happen to you…"

"How did you survive?" her father asked.

"Well, I had pulled Tsuyu away from the group to talk about something private…"

"What was it?"

"Well, I should probably let you guys know… It's really embarrassing…"

"It couldn't beat what your father did in high school." Her mother nodded at her.

"I accidentally told a boy that I loved him over phone."

"Who is it?"

"Izuku Midoriya…" (Note: In Japanese, the last name comes first, so it would be switched.)

"Do you love him?"

"Well, it doesn't really matter, because I'm never going to see him again."

"So, that's a yes, then."

"Why did I do it?"

"Well, sometimes, we as human beings want closure. That's probably why you sent it."

"No, the closure before was perfect before I ruined it by sending that stupid text. Stupid!"

"Then maybe the reason you sent the text, is because you didn't want closure. You wanted to continue your relationship with him."

"Well, yeah, but it's not like he lives near here anymore anyway."

Her father spoke up. "Maybe you wanted closure for your feelings, even if it meant ruining closure for your friendship."

"So how did he respond?" Her mother inquired expectantly.

"He hasn't."

"Ooh, bad sign."

"Well, no, that just means he lives in a place where he never gets phone service. He's probably thinking 'What did she mean by that? Is that girl into me or something? What a pain!'"

"Well, if he's a decent man," her father started. "—He'll care about your feelings."

Ochako covered her face with her hands. "He has the best personality I know of. He cares deeply for everyone, and he tries to protect people, regardless of whether it's safe to do so. He saved my life on the day we first met. I—I was so thoughtless when I sent that text. I wish I could just take it back."

"Can't you delete texts?"

"Well, it was right before he lost connection."

"Well, I've had a lot of awkward teen years, but nothing quite like that."

"Oh, dinner is almost ready!" her mom interjected. "It's your favorite! By that I mean your fifth favorite dinner meal!"

"Fifth favorite? I feel so adored," Ochako joked. "But really, that sashimi you make hits the spot."

* * *

Tsuyu got home. She knocked on the door.

When her father opened it, he fainted, falling nearly on top of his daughter.

His blood fell on the doorstep.

"Mom! Dad fainted!" Tsuyu called.

"Oh, no…" Her mother came to pick him up. "Man, he landed right on his nose. Tsuyu, can you help me carry your father inside?"

"Why aren't you guys at work?"

"Well, our normal babysitter fell ill right about when your classroom was attacked. We called other people, but we haven't found—"

"But why are you both here?"

"Well… We wanted to be together as a family in the time following your assumed death. But, thank God, you're alive!"

"There. Set him down. Okay, can you get an ice pack?" Tsuyu's mom ran to get hydrogen peroxide.

"Yeah!"

Her siblings looked over at her in awe.

"Hi guys," Tsuyu greeted, busy getting ice out of the freezer.

* * *

Todoroki woke up.

He looked at his hospital surroundings. "Where am I? What happened?"

He took out his phone and dialed up Tokoyami. There was no answer.

"Eh, I'll leave him a voicemail," he thought. Then he spoke after the beep. "Hi, Tokoyami. Just woke up in the hospital. I'm feeling better, but I'm a little disoriented. That's all I had to say. Bye."

Then the nurse came in. She jumped when she saw that he was awake. "Your sister said she wanted to talk to you when you woke up." The nurse gave Shouto a landline phone and then left the room.

"Todoroki?" Momo asked.

"You're not Fuyumi!" Shouto exclaimed in surprise. "Who is this?!"

"Your classmate, Yaoyorozu. I just wanted to inform you that you, I, Uraraka, and Asui were the only four survivors of the villain attack on UA that I know of. Maybe a couple of the others managed to survive, but I highly doubt it. You should probably contact your family; they probably think you're dead. Call me later if you want more information, but you should really contact your family as soon as you can."

"Yes. Thank you for filling me in." Did that mean that the friend to whom he sent a voicemail was dead? That really didn't feel good. He called his father.

Meanwhile, Endeavor was yelling at Nezu because he thought his son had died.

Nezu looked down at the ground. Nothing the school could have done could have prevented this except for suspending school in advance of the attack, which they had no way of knowing would happen.

Then his phone rang with Todoroki's ringtone. Nezu saw Shouto's name on the screen.

"What?!" Endeavor exclaimed. He answered the call.

"I'm alive. Quit freaking out and apologize." Then Todoroki hung up. He had assumed that his father would do something rash when he heard the news of Todoroki's supposed death.

"Was that your son?" Nezu asked.

"Yes," Endeavor admitted. "I don't know how he survived that attack, but my irritable son must be some tough nut. I'll give him that."

Then Todoroki called his other family members and then Yaoyorozu again.

Word got out to the authorities that they four had survived.

* * *

"—this is Toshu Dageki." (打撃・徒手) Inawara poked Toshu in the side. "His given name means kegs of sake, so you could guess that he's always drunk."

"No, it means bare-handed! My name means bare-handed blow, and that's all!" Toshu seemed irritated.

"Actually, your full name could be phonetically misinterpreted as "Drunken Brawl", but I wasn't going to go there."

"It means bare-handed blow. Period."

Inawara giggled.

"So, you were really working hard out there earlier," Wakadou stated. "That's good. I don't respect people who don't work hard."

Izuku nodded his head nervously. Something about Wakadou reminded him of Bakugo.

"You're pretty green, aren't you, Midoriya?" Tori looked closely at Midoriya. "Where'd you go to school before coming here?"

"UA High," Izuku croaked.

"What?!" Inawara exclaimed.

"How'd you get in there?" Wakadou asked. None of them yet knew that UA was no more.

"I passed the entrance exam."

"How does a scrawny guy like you pass the UA entrance exam?"

"It's a long story…"

"Wait, are you that guy from the sports festival?" Tori asked.

"Uh, yeah, I did participate in the sports festival…"

"Oh! Wow!" Inawara exclaimed.

~ time of UA's downfall ~

Bakugo blasted out the wall moments before the poison gas enveloped his classmates.

He saw the gathering villains all over campus. This was no small attack.

He yelled, sending explosions all over the place.

One of the villains struck at Bakugo, missing him by a hair.

Bakugo quickly realized that this was not a battle he could survive being present for, forget winning.

He blasted himself up into the air and away, muttering obscenities.

~ one month later ~

Izuku and his classmates were taking a rare school field trip.

They were going to be learning about great heroes at Japan's premiere hero museum.

Over the last few weeks, Midoriya had grown closer to Inawara and Wakadou, along with Kotori and Dageki.

"Who's excited for the museum?!" Wakadou exclaimed with sarcastic glee.

"I am!" Midoriya responded. He didn't catch that none of them wanted to go, with all of their sarcastic glowing remarks about yearning to go.

"I'm going to learn about dead people, and it'll be like, so fun. Like, let's learn about dead heroes!" Inawara exclaimed in an odd voice. "It's totally not depressing and boring."

"Well, not all of them are dead…" Izuku wore a look of confusion. What were they talking about? He loved his new friends, but he didn't always understand them.

"Personally, I just want to find where they are handing out free cookies," Tori stated.

"I don't wanna go…" Dageki moaned.

"Come on, be a sport," Wakadou responded sarcastically. "You know, the only way you'll succeed in life is blah, blah, blah. That's what our teacher says, after all."

"If you'll work together with others, right? Is that what she says?" Midoriya asked.

Wakadou looked at Midoriya like he was an idiot, with an unimpressed deadpan stare.

"It would be cool if they did have cookies…" Inawara snapped out of her trance. "Stop giving me ideas, Kotori!"

Kotori chuckled.

"This is just more training I'm missing…" Dageki complained.

"Hey, don't you need to give your muscles a rest now and then like the rest of us?" Wakadou asked.

"No. That's my quirk, remember? Every time I use my muscles they get stronger. I can't overwork them. That's why they bulge so much. I want to bulk up as much as I can."

"You already have the third widest muscles in our entire school, Dageki. Don't you think you're good?" Tori asked.

"Man," Izuku thought. "If I had been born with Dageki's quirk, training for One for All sure would've been easier." The powers were actually quite similar: Dageki's quirk stockpiled muscular strength, while Izuku's quirk stockpiled raw power and could be passed on.

The bus stopped.

They got out one at a time.

When they were all out, the teacher began explaining to them what they were going to do.

"Wait a second…" Izuku said to Wakadou. Then he jumped up on Wakadou's shoulders.

"Why are you on my shoulders?" Wakadou asked.

"See that hand that's grabbing your foot? Shigaraki is here."

"What—" He looked down, realizing that there was a hand grabbing his foot.

The students who tried to rip their foot out of the hand grabbing them began to decay, as did their teacher, screaming and wailing. Thankfully, Inawara, Kotori, and Dageki had been too flummoxed by the hands grabbing them to act.

"Just stand still, everyone. I think Shigaraki is about to show himself." Midoriya's face looked very somber.

Everyone that had shown a fight or flight response was now dying. Only those who froze were okay, which was about three-quarters of them, surprisingly.

Shigaraki arose from the ground. "Deku! I'm so happy to see you! It's been a long time, hasn't it? In retrospect, I should have kidnapped the gravity girl and the frog lady. That would have been a hoot. Wait, why didn't I just do that in the first place?! That crafty frog… Anyway, just so you know, I'm here to torture your friends, kill them, torture you, find out where All Might is, and kill you!"

"All Might?" one of the students muttered.

"Stay away from me, Shigaraki! Your organization already killed my old classmates. Isn't that enough?!"

"No. No, no… NO. It'll never be enough. But … how about I make you an offer?"

"What?"

"Not you, the one you're sitting on."

"Me?" Wakadou asked.

"Yeah, you. Drop Midoriya, and I'll let your class go free."

"I refuse to hand over someone who was smart enough to climb onto my shoulders when your hands started surfacing."

"Should I kill you, then?"

"You're the head of the Villain Alliance, aren't you? The worst of the worst?"

Shigaraki lit flames of five different colors above the fingers of his left hand. "We are no longer just the Villain Alliance. We are the New World Order, and the first step to that plan is extinguishing One for All, All Might's power, or even better, taking it for ourselves."

"Is that your quirk?" Inawara asked, dumbfounded, to Izuku.

Izuku tried a technique he had recently learned. He funneled his power through Wakadou's body, shocking Shigaraki, disabling him momentarily. He had found that his power could be turned into energy, yet it was different from Kaminari's quirk, because Kaminari's quirk was easily converting energy into lightning, while Izuku had to pass the energy through something.

The energy flowed through Wakadou, electrocuting everyone including Shigaraki.

They all fell forward as if dead. Midoriya hit the ground hard, but quickly got up.

Midoriya ran at Shigaraki. He had to kill him.

Right when he was about to reach him, Kurogiri nabbed Shigaraki and took him through a portal.

"No… He won't be so careless again," Izuku stated. "I need to restart their hearts."

Izuku was able to one by one, defibrillate them back to life. The process was tedious, but he managed to get it done before any of them died.

They all seemed confused when they woke up. They remembered what happened, but gaining consciousness where they did was still startling.

Tori cleared his throat. "I am fairly certain I speak for everyone when I say this. If you are endangering all of our lives, we don't want you to be here." Tori stated.

Midoriya responded. "I need to get good training for my quirk somewhere. The fact is that I left UA High to protect my classmates, and look at what happened to them." He didn't want to think about it… didn't. He had heard about the destruction of UA only recently. He had been heartbroken. They didn't know of any survivors.

"Well, when you say it like that, it sounds like we should all skedaddle." Inawara determined.

They looked back at the dead students and the dead teacher.

Dageki spoke up. "This is why I hate field trips."

Izuku started to cry. "It seems like lately, I bring death wherever I go."

"Then why did you come to our school?!"

"I—I thought that they wouldn't find me here…"

"Well, aren't you a smart one! I knew there was something different about you." Tori stated. "I never would have guessed this."

Izuku's tears increased. He had brought so much death. All of his friends from UA, as far as he knew, were dead. Now a quarter of his new class was dead, and the rest were in danger and hated him for it. He thought of all of his old classmates, (he hadn't heard the news that four survived), and once again, his mind rested on Ochako Uraraka, but this time, it wasn't muffled under the covers of his bunk. It wasn't sniffling in the dead of night. He was falling apart in dramatic fashion before the very eyes of his classmates. He didn't know how he was going to make it anymore. Why they hadn't gone after his mother yet, he had no clue. He just hoped that they had forgotten of her existence. He couldn't go back to her. It would endanger her even way more.

"I thought you weren't a weakling, but now you show your true colors, huh?" Wakadou stated.

"My entire class died! Now many of us have died! My teachers have died! And you're going to call me weak?! Yeah, I wonder how weak you'd feel if everyone you loved was at high risk of getting killed because of their association with you! I wonder how weak you'd feel if you could barely even defend your own life. I wonder how weak you'd feel if you realized that even with a great quirk, you cannot save the people you care about most. Yes, weak is what I am. But that doesn't define who I am. I have trained to become a hero so that I can save people. What are you all training for? Money? Fame? Taking out villains?"

"That's ironic," Tori stated. "You're going to end up costing more people their lives than you will save. Because of you, we're all in danger. I say this with a heavy heart, and apprehension, but seriously, kill yourself."

Midoriya couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed Tori by the neck, his green sparks dancing around his glove. "Be quiet."

After that, everyone was afraid of him.

 **Author's Note: Never commit suicide or tell anyone to, period. It is not an escape mechanism for suffering. It always makes it worse. This is common sense, but, you know, not all of the characters in this story are very savvy when it comes to matters of life and death.**

 **Think about this. Pain signals are warning systems of our bodies that alert us when we are being damaged. If someone kills themselves to escape pain, that's like feeding oneself to wolves because one is tortured by all of the horror stories one has heard about wolves devouring people.**

* * *

"I have to extinguish One for All, before we take over the world!" Shigaraki shouted. "I can't believe that little brat! Well, he and All Might will be killed at my hand soon enough. I shouldn't be so rash…"

"I still don't understand why we don't just take over the world first," Kurogiri stated.

"Well, you know that lady with the Foresight quirk we have in Sector KA-4? She warned me against trying to take out the world before destroying One for All. She has no motive to lie to us. She said that One for All is our only roadblock."

"I still don't understand…"

"You know why One for All is so dangerous, right?"

"No…"

"One for All stockpiles power. It can be passed down like All for One, but One for All, while it is much weaker than All for One right now, gets more powerful with each user. I need to get rid of it as soon as I can. You know that I am only the second bearer of All for One. I have previously taken the idea of stealing One for All out of consideration, but I actually think that now I want to pursue that first. Although, I don't think the previous holders would be willing to lend me their power… It only works if the first holder approves of you, if it works anything like All for One."

 **This chapter took a long time to write. I hope you enjoyed! I am not sure how quickly I want to wrap this up. Maybe a few more chapters. (I know, this will be hilarious if I make the story super long.)**


	4. Tracking a Math Book

Izuku woke up in a pool of sweat. Kotori's words rang through his mind. "I say this with a heavy heart, and apprehension, but seriously, kill yourself." Those words reminded him of elementary school.

He got up. He remembered what had happened yesterday. The school had taken drastic action. There would be no more school field trips for the entire school, and now Midoriya's class in particular was guarded with the greatest care. All Might had apologized to him about what had come to pass. It didn't affect Midoriya. He had known that the potential consequences of accepting this power could spiral out of control. He just never expected it to be this bad. What affected him was the funeral service for his teacher and some of his classmates.

He got into his school clothes.

"Your looks are dreadfully deceiving, you know that, right?" Wakadou stated. He had stated this a few times before, but usually with more amusement.

"Isn't that the mark of an artful combatant?"

"I guess. I'm sorry you had to go through Kotori's little s*** fest. The guy thinks he knows what's right."

"Well, if he thinks I'll heed _that_ advice, then he doesn't know me at all."

"Once again, your looks are dreadfully deceiving."

"It all just hurts. I'd love to say that I didn't care what he said. But…" He had to stop. Thinking about his past would only make him erupt into an incoherent tantrum. That would gain him some respect points with Wakadou, not.

"Just start calling him Kotori all the time instead of Tori. That'll rile his feathers like nothing else."

"Well, he wants to be called Tori, not Kotori."

"Don't you want to get back at him?"

"Not really."

"You know, I never know what to expect from you."

"Things have gotten weird ever since—never mind, it doesn't matter. Let's get ready for class."

They were soon out the door of their dorms.

"Since what?"

He tried to phrase their farewell in a nice way. "Since, well, since Ochako told me she loved me." He covered his mouth. He had to stop using her first name. She was dead, as far as he knew. He had to make sure that that never sunk in.

"Ooh, you got some lady action over there?"

Izuku nodded, not wanting to say that she was dead.

"Are you into her?"

"What does that mean?"

"Do you want the giant peanut? Are you craving that sweet scent?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"Well, it's like … do you want to take home the cake?"

"Huh?"

"You know what? Inawara would know what to say. She's good with this kind of thing."

"Okay…"

"Here we are."

They entered the classroom.

"Hello, class! I'm Mr. Kyouiki, your new teacher!" (境域) "I have been briefed on your names and your quirks. Now that that's out of the way, I want to tell you about my quirk! I can transfer a quirk from one person to another temporarily, but that another person cannot be me. I cannot transfer my own quirk. I can transfer most emitter quirks, some transformation quirks, and occasionally mutant quirks without adverse effects. It all depends on your quirks. Today there are two main concepts I want to teach you. The first is that some quirks are easier to learn how to use than others. The second is the potential of quirks in multiplicity. Kenfurume Wakadou, Shitone Saiseki (砕石茵), will you come to the front of the class? Now, which quirk among these two young men would be easier to use?"

A student raised their hand. "Saiseki's quirk would be easier to use, because it requires less skill to operate."

"Any other opinions?"

There was silence.

"Let's test it out then, shall we?"

Saiseki and Wakadou came to the front of the class.

"Oh. One more thing. You may notice that I have a pair of handcuffs hanging from each wrist. They are support items for my quirk. I have to be touching both people to transfer quirks. The handcuffs automatically lock onto the wrist or ankle of any hand or foot that I grab. Their primary purpose is to keep the people involved in the transfer involved in the transfer. They also can zap someone unconscious if I signal for it."

He grabbed his students' hands, the handcuffs closing over their wrists.

"Alright, first I will give Saiseki's quirk to Wakadou, which I believe is Body Tractor. Saiseki, can you tell us more about your quirk?"

"Well, my quirk allows me to use my overall muscular strength to pull objects towards me."

"Wakadou, try using it."

Wakadou pulled some books from his deck towards himself, catching them with his free hand. "This is awesome!" He pulled his entire desk towards him, activating his Grit Form quirk, making hard dirt immediately accumulate around his hand. He punched the desk as it came towards him, smashing it, making all of his books fall out.

"Ha ha… Let's not damage the classroom," Mr. Kyouiki requested. "I'm switching the transfer around. Now Saiseki will have both quirks, instead of Wakadou."

Saiseki watched in bewilderment as he created dirt around his fingers, which immediately fell to the floor.

"Man, your quirks are both terrible to this classroom. Can someone please clean this up? And, let's see, can Toshu Dageki and Izuku Midoriya please come forward? When I saw your quirks on file, I had to find out how they would interact."

Dageki and Midoriya went to the front by Mr. Kyouiki.

"Now, I will only be transferring Midoriya's quirk to Dageki, since Dageki's quirk is mutant and Midoriya's quirk is emitter."

"Wait, sir? While my quirk is technically mutant, it doesn't change my body structure at all." Dageki wanted to see how someone else would handle his quirk.

"Also, sir, my quirk, while an emitter quirk, might have disastrous complications if transferred. If I'm not careful with it, I can damage my body very badly, but that would probably be the least of our problems if you transferred my quirk." Izuku didn't want to think about what would happen if One for All was stringed across someone who was ill-prepared for it.

"Well, isn't that interesting? All right, we'll do it your way." Mr. Kyouiki decided. He grabbed their hands, and the handcuffs closed.

Izuku immediately felt the difference. "What did you say your quirk was again?"

Dageki responded. "My quirk makes it so your muscles and joints are impervious to damage. It allows me to exercise non-stop."

"Then it's the ideal synergy."

"What the heck?"

Izuku's free arm started to glow with the green sparks of his quirk until his sleeve could no longer be seen beneath the glow. He thrust it forward as if swimming, releasing a beam two feet in diameter that shot clean through the wall and the distant mountain behind it. Since he couldn't damage his body, his capabilities were incomparably increased.

"Holy ****!" Mr. Kyouiki exclaimed. "Oh, sorry. But man, with that kind of power, you could vaporize any pro hero."

Through the hole in the wall, they could see villains in hordes trying to make it up their mountain.

"Wait, is that … holy ****! We've got to get out of here! Students, abandon your normal drill protocol. Gathering the kids up under conditions like this would be idiotic, and we won't face repercussions for doing so with this intensity of threat. I'm going to keep this quirk transfer active, so that you, Midoriya, can protect us." He pulled Midoriya and Dageki with him, and the other students followed out the hole in the wall.

Wakadou looked closely at the hole in the mountain. It was far away, but it looked perfectly circular.

"We need to get to the hangar before the villains do."

* * *

Ochako felt a fly on her neck.

She slapped its location, but it flew away before contact.

Then she let her hand rest at her side.

They were watching a comedy.

Ochako felt a hand on her neck.

"So, my guys have done a little digging, and apparently, you are exactly who I thought you were in the first place: Izuku's little princess." She didn't have to see to know who was whispering.

Ochako gasped as a black bag was drawn over her head.

Meanwhile, her parents were sitting beside her, too distracted by the movie to notice their daughter's abduction.

Mrs. Uraraka looked over at her daughter's empty seat. "Why would Ochako go to the restroom now? It's the climax of the movie!"

"When you need to go, you need to go," Mr. Uraraka concluded.

* * *

Tsuyu was over at Momo's house.

"I wish Ochako could have come. Your house is amazing!"

"Yeah, I can't say I wouldn't rather be with my parents than in this big house, though… This is my collection of swords. But once you see one, you've seen them all. I literally created them all exactly the same," Momo explained.

"Wow, what use do you have for them?"

"None really. It just feels good to have."

"Huh."

"Do you want to see my tracker remote collection?"

"Sure. Do they all look the same?"

"Yeah, but they're a little more interesting."

They came to a wall with them all off with their tracking pieces.

"Wait, this one's on without it's tracking piece." A piece of masking tape on it had the words "MATH TEXTBOOK" on it. "Oh, my notebook one. That's not supposed to be here! No wonder it's been lost. I guess I should have looked here. Wait, 400 miles away?! But my math textbook is in my backpack here. I'm 100% sure of it!"

"Let's go to where the tracker leads," Tsuyu suggested.

"Really? Sure! Grab the tracker remote, and head out with me to the car."

"Okay! But 400 miles?"

"Yeah… Let's take the private helicopter."

"Private helicopter?! How rich ARE you?"

Yaoyorozu blushed and frowned. "We're comfortable with what we have," she muttered.

"No, I'm happy for you! Being rich isn't something to be insecure about!"

"I know…" She got out her phone. "Mr. Anko, can you fly me in the helicopter?" She hung up. "He'll be here in five."

* * *

"You're the one they're looking for, aren't you?!" Tori shouted.

"Yeah…" Izuku admitted.

"What kind of a kid are you?!" Mr. Kyouiki asked.

"He got the previous teacher and part of our class killed last time."

"Hey, the only thing he did wrong was be present here! You talk like he was the one who killed them!" Inawara exclaimed.

"Well, now I can see why you didn't want to transfer your quirk…" Mr. Kyouiki trailed.

"I can use my quirk to its fullest extent when connected with Dageki. None of us are dying today unless our connection breaks," Midoriya stated. The moment he said this, he looked back and saw most of his class's bodies on the ground. He snapped into action as he saw a dagger behind Inawara.

This invisible villain's orders were to kill Midoriya, but he ended up killing the others out of bloodthirst.

He shot powerful focused wind at the villain, knocking him away from Inawara just in time. Then he knocked up dust everywhere to expose the villain, following up with a beam to disintegrate the villain.

"I'm so sorry…" Izuku burst into tears. "He almost killed you too, Inawara. If I had seen him earlier…" He covered his face with his hand.

"Look alive, Midoriya!" Mr. Kyouiki commanded. "For a super powerful person, you really don't have much wits, do you?"

"Sorry!"

"We need to find a way out of here. This is a remote location. Is there anyone with a quirk here that can help us? Damn, probably should have asked before most of our class got axed. Wait, what?! Oh my, I've failed as a teacher, haven't I? Well, let's see if we can still manage to pull our sorry butts out of here."

"Look! A helicopter!" Wakadou pointed out.

The helicopter landed right next to them.

"Shoot it, Midoriya!" Tori commanded.

"No! Are you insane?! That's our ticket out of here!" Saiseki responded.

They approached the helicopter.

Out came Yaoyorozu and Asui.

"Yaoyorozu? Tsu? What are you guys doing here? I thought you were dead!" Izuku was shocked.

"Ochako, Momo, Todoroki, and I escaped with our lives!" Tsuyu responded.

"Ochako's alive?" His face lit up.

"Yeah, Todoroki too," Momo responded awkwardly.

"I want to see her!" Izuku stated. "Wait, how in the world did you find us? Why are you here? Why do you have a helicopter?"

"Well, our math books must have gotten mixed up. I put a tracker on it because I'm always losing things."

"But why now?"

"It's a long story."

"We need to leave here."

"There's only five other students in your class?" Tsuyu asked.

"Only five left," Izuku responded. "Come on. The villains are coming."

 **Tell me what you think. This one took a long time because I lost a lot of progress.**


	5. Helicopter

The helicopter neared Momo's mansion.

"Can we stop the transfer?" Dageki asked.

"Yeah. Midoriya, you're not giving me back the power. Release the power," Mr. Kyouiki instructed.

"Oh, sorry!" Midoriya responded, releasing the power.

"Most people can't retain transferred powers when I try to end transfers, but you could. Why?"

"It's probably my quirk. It stockpiles power, so it didn't want to let go of that power."

"His quirk aided you well, right?"

"Aided? It allowed me to use my quirk fully, when usually I can only use a fraction of a percentage of it."

"That is insane. Wait, when you think about it, our quirks together could be like All for One? No?"

"Do you want to test it?"

"Use my quirk," Wakadou volunteered. "I want to see Izuku's face when he creates dirt inside of his gloves. Did I just say that out loud? Well, I guess that blows it. Just give me back my quirk when you're done."

Mr. Kyouiki nodded nervously.

He made the transfer.

Izuku tried to peel off his right glove with his teeth, without much success. "Great, now there's dirt in my gloves."

Wakadou laughed like he had just seen a pig explode.

Mr. Kyouiki ended the transfer.

"Give it back to him! I don't like this!" Izuku responded.

"I can't use my quirk, like you said," Wakadou stated.

"So, it does do that," Mr. Kyouiki determined. "Here." He transferred the quirk back when Izuku let go of it.

"Mr. Kyouiki, can I have Dageki's quirk again?" Izuku asked.

"Why aren't you asking me?!" Dageki growled.

"Oh, yeah, sorry."

"You want to steal it, don't you!"

"Well, now that you mention it, that quirk would exponentially increase my power, but I think I have a solution that will make both of us happy."

"What?"

"I get you a quirk that works exceptionally well with your well-developed muscles in exchange for your quirk."

"No. This quirk is MY quirk. I want to keep it!"

"Then I'll just have to make it a quirk you can't pass up."

"Where are you going to get a quirk like that?" Mr. Kyouiki asked.

"High-security prison. I'd need you to come with me."

"I don't care if you get me the coolest quirk ever! This quirk is mine!" Dageki persisted.

Izuku wanted to justify stealing Dageki's quirk so badly. "Why?"

"Because working out constantly is epic, man. Can't be replaced."

"I bet you want to steal it, don't you, Izuku?" Tori responded. His use of his first name was a vessel of disrespect.

"That's irrelevant. Dageki has stated his position, and it's his quirk." Izuku's eyes looked down.

Kotori looked disappointed.

"Hey, Dageki, you should really give Midoriya the quirk, so we don't all get killed by some surprise villain attack," Wakadou remarked. "Midoriya's powerful enough to be a target, but not powerful enough to protect a group of people. We're associated with him now, like it or not."

"Tsuyu, could you turn on the TV?" Momo asked.

Tsuyu did so. The news headline onscreen was "Top 100 Pro Heroes All Dead". Screenshots of one, four, nine, sixteen, and many dead pro heroes all dead.

"What?!" Inawara exclaimed.

"It has begun," Izuku muttered.

"Dageki?! Midoriya?!" Wakadou responded.

They were interviewing Hero #101.

"So, how do you feel about becoming Hero #1?" the interviewer asked.

"It fills me with grief. I never thought I would reach this status, let alone in such a terrible way. This is my warning. Unless a symbol of justice appears like All Might or we fight them with our masses, the Villains will eventually overtake us. But take heart! The carriage of civilization is not held by one man, nor a hundred. It is time for those with the less powerful quirks to rise up and protect our society. The League of Villains is on edge, for one reason or another. That is clear by the fact that we're not all already dead. Oops… Is this live? Shoot. I—I have somewhere to be. Bye!"

"This just breaking!" the anchor shouted. "The new #1 hero says that civilization as we know it is hanging by a thread!"

"This isn't looking good," Tsuyu understated.

"Okay, Dageki, I'd give you my quirk if you'd give yours to Izuku! I mean, Midoriya…" Wakadou stated.

"But it's my quirk!" Dageki stated.

"No, my dirt quirk is my quirk, Dageki. Not sure if you could realize that."

"You know what I mean! Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"You're being selfish," Kotori stated. "Even though I hate Midoriya, he's our best shot at taking them out, probably. Dageki, give up your quirk."

"Can I have it back after this is all over?" Dageki asked.

"Yes. Just let me keep it long enough to defeat One for All once and for all." Izuku answered.

"Give me a box I can smash."

"What?"

"I want to smash one more thing before I give up my power."

Wakadou handed over a box of Momo's well-loved, long-lost manga character dolls.

"No!" Momo cried as Dageki smashed the box.

Dageki looked over at Momo's horrified face in satisfaction.

Then he grabbed Mr. Kyouiki's hand, and his power was taken from him and transferred to Izuku.

Mr. Kyouiki overdid it, making Dageki pass out and Izuku getting a bad case of the jitters. When he successfully ended the transfer, Izuku was nearly bouncing off the walls.

Izuku's jaw started to shiver incredibly fast while sweat dripped down his back. "I feel so hyper! Can't activate my quirk in here." Then he started to mutter nonstop.

"What did you do to him, Mr. Kyouiki?" Inawara asked concernedly.

"He just smashed my collectible box! That was worth about 2 million dollars!" Momo screamed.

"Dageki will be happy to hear that when he wakes up," Kotori remarked.

"So, this is your helicopter?" Wakadou asked.

"Yes," Momo responded with irritation.

"D***, you must be rich as hell."

"I'm not so rich that I go around smashing millions of dollars for fun!"

Then they landed.

"I need to get off of this helicopter right now," Momo stated lividly.

Tsuyu had never seen her like this before.

The doors opened.

Momo rushed off of her helicopter. She hadn't expected any of this. She couldn't appreciate all of the lives she had just saved. She could only think about her destroyed property. Those dolls had meant much to her when she was younger.

She didn't notice when a dark figure came upon her.

But Saiseki did. He pulled her to him as the assassin barely missed her.

Midoriya responded with a beam of power shot at the assassin, destroying the top of the building where the assassin had been.

"I love that you guys are protecting me, but could you not destroy my house?" Momo asked.

"Sorry, I was a little trigger-happy there," Izuku admitted.

"Why was a villain here?"

"My guess is that because of your involvement with Midoriya, they want to kill you." Kotori deadpanned.

* * *

"Listen, little Uravity, you are close to that Midoriya boy, aren't you?" Shigaraki hissed.

"No, I'm not," Uraraka responded.

"Don't lie to me!"

"In the bigger picture, you just kidnapped me, and now you expect me to give you information?"

"I can make you talk."

"Well, I do know that he's bad news."

"What do you mean?" His tone was vile.

"I mean, the stuff he's involved in. It's bad."

Shigaraki chuckled. "Tell me more."

"I don't know what it is, but whatever it is got UA demolished."

"But, I could have sworn that you and Midoriya have had a close relationship… You've been with him on many occasions."

"Well, yes, but that's in the past. He and I don't know each other anymore."

"This will still work!" he cackled.

"Really? You think I'll be of any use to you? Don't disappoint yourself."

"Oh, I'll 'disappoint' myself very much."

* * *

Midoriya laid down in the bed. Their situation was very odd. They were in a remote cabin in the woods, provided by one of Mr. Kyouiki's longtime friends. They were living like a group on the lam. Since most of Midoriya's classmates were from foreign countries, they had no homes here to go to, since their school was destroyed, and Midoriya couldn't go home. The whole country was in a mild disorder, like a parked car that was starting to roll because the brakes were gone.

He didn't know how much longer he could go on like this. Not two months ago, he had different friends, different expectations for the future, and a normal life. He still had All Might. He was thankful for that much.

But now, the past didn't need thought. His empty cup of cocoa was on the dresser, and the silence reminded him that the feeling of living a normal life was never too far away.

He nodded off without a thought.

 **Sorry this one took so long! I basically had no visualized path for this chapter, but now I have a bit more to go on … I think. Don't worry, it will heat up steadily here. Not saying that I'll update faster though. :/**


	6. KISSING

Izuku got up. He wanted to talk to someone, right now. "Who should I call right now?" Izuku asked himself. Ochako came to mind. "No, no, no. All Might needs his sleep. I—I'll call Tsu." He called her.

"Who is it?!" Tsuyu bellowed. "You just woke me up. It's two in the morning!"

"Sorry! It's me, Midoriya!" Izuku cried as he realized what he had just done. "I—I just … wanted to know who else survived. You said Ochako survived, right? Or was I just imagining things…"

Tsuyu thought to herself. She had told him that Ochako was alive, but she also knew that she had gone missing hours before. "Well, she has gone missing now, but yesterday morning she was alive and well."

"Are you serious?! No! I don't know if I can bear this anymore!"

"Bear what?"

"Being apart from her… Ever since her and I parted ways, and before that, actually, I have become fixated on her. It doesn't really make any logical sense, but I really want to see her again, more than the others."

"Oh."

"Shoot, I shouldn't have said that. I know I shouldn't be feeling these feelings…"

"How odd. Maybe it's the effects of a quirk." Tsuyu was very cunning when she needed to be, but was still quite dense. "Otherwise, though, that sounds kind of heartless, dude. You should be sad for our whole class, not just one person."

"No, I mean, I am sad for all of them, but every time I think about Ochako, I feel like I'm going insane!"

"That's really creepy. Just saying."

"It is?" Izuku croaked. His insecurity was only getting worse.

"Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want to be a part of that."

"Oh." Izuku felt so condemned.

"But yeah, Bakugo texted Momo an angry text about all of the things she's ever done that he didn't like, thinking she was dead, and when Momo responded, he apologized. So, he's alive too, along with Todoroki, Momo, and I. And hopefully, Ochako is alive too."

"Hopefully?!"

"If I had to guess, the villains are probably angling to use her against you."

"What?!"

"Are you ready for a grinning Shigaraki with four fingers around Ochako's neck?"

"Why…"

"You know that he wants you dead. He probably wants you to give up your life to save hers."

"How would you know that?!"

"Well, it's obviously what they'd do."

"Really?"

"Yeah, so you have several options. The best one would be if you could somehow convince them that you firmly believe that it couldn't be Ochako, because you think she's dead. That takes away their leverage. That one's kind of a long shot, though…"

"No, I know Himiko Toga is part of the League of Villains. I can say that it must be her instead of Ochako, because her quirk allows her to look like other people."

"Okay, but you have to own the bluff. If they put a knife to her neck, and you flinch, they won't believe that you think it's not Ochako. You just have to try to escape after they make their threat without regard to Ochako, preferably without facing Ochako."

"But what will she think of me if I do that?!"

"As long as she believes that you believe she's dead too, she shouldn't hold it against you. If you see her after that, be suspicious of her, not because she'd be fake, but she'd think you'd think she was fake."

"I don't like that option, even if it guarantees her safety. What are the other options?"

"You could try to take her from them before they kill her. She'll probably die if you do that, though."

"I am _not_ doing that."

"You could give up your life to save her, though you'd die, and they'd probably kill her too afterwards."

"Absolutely not."

"You could also try to avoid the situation in the first second of coming across them, before they can voice their threat."

"That's not reliable."

"Then bluffing on it is probably the best option you have."

"Thanks, Tsu. I'm so glad I called you."

"It's two in the morning. Take that back."

"No, but I'm sorry to be of inconvenience."

"Eh, fair enough. Good night!" Tsuyu hung up.

Now Izuku couldn't sleep at all. Thoughts about Ochako flooded through his mind.

"I'll save you," he assured. "I promise."

* * *

"Good morning!" Inawara greeted.

"Man, who knew something like this would end up happening?" Kotori asked.

"Not me. I just want to get back home at this point," Saiseki remarked.

"Same here."

"Man, what a bead-head, Midoriya. I can't believe it, but I think your hair is even messier than usual!" Wakadou stated. "What do you do to get it like that?"

"He probably houses rats in that thing when the unforgiving night commences," Tori theorized.

"That's not nice, Tori!" Inawara responded.

"Really, why is it like that?" Wakadou repeated.

"Well, I have a lot on my mind…" Izuku started.

"Like rats!" Tori interjected.

"No, it's something else," he responded, his face turning red.

"It's that girl!" Wakadou guessed, watching to see if he got a reaction.

"How did you know?!" Izuku erupted.

"I got mad skills with sensing girl-stress. What was her name again? Ochako? That's weird for a last name; usually that would be a first name, right?"

"It is her first name!" Izuku was blushing more than ever.

"Woah!" Wakadou responded. "You—you call her by her first name…? And, and I said it too… Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I don't know! Things were hard when I thought she was dead."

"Izuku and Ochako, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Kotori sang. Dageki sang along with him for the "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" part.

Izuku looked like his brain had melted down internally.

"I think you guys broke him," Saiseki remarked. "Fried his circuitry."

"Is he even conscious?" Inawara questioned.

"Yes!" Tori rejoiced.

"He is?"

"Oh, I don't know. We can sure have a lot of fun with him when he comes to, though."

"Don't mess him up more! He's already a mess as he is! Just look at him! That horrified look on his face! It's like you flash-petrified him!"

Meanwhile, Izuku was having a panic attack. He was imagining a scene where he had just kissed her. "Midoriya, you pervert!" imaginary Ochako said to him. "Stay away from me! I can't believe you! You're worse than Mineta!" He started to cry.

"That's not good. Hey, Tori, lay off on the girl-pressure, okay? We don't want him going all weakling on us, do we? I hate weaklings. Just hearing him cry makes me mad at him. If I didn't know how strong he can be, I'd punch him in the face right now!"

"You have a lot of growing to do before you become a father, Wakadou," Inawara responded.

"Who needs kids?"

"Wow, who's talking? A human offspring!"

"Okay, okay."

"Weak people should be supported, not cast down. Someday, when you're ancient, you'll probably be weak too, like we'll all be."

"Nope, I'll always be strong."

"Not as strong as I'll be!" Dageki responded. "But losing my quirk to Midoriya really sucks. I can't train as much as I'm used to, and I have to be more careful."

"I don't even know if it's possible to get that buff without a quirk like yours, Dageki," Saiseki commented.

"It's not," Dageki responded, proud of his muscles.

Mr. Kyouiki came into the room with breakfast. "Good morning! I have important news: We're still going to continue your strength training here. I have a spare set of curricula to work off of. And here's breakfast."

"Midoriya, it's time for breakfast!" Wakadou sang to Midoriya, pushing his spoon on Midoriya's cheek.

"Huh?" Midoriya awoke. His thoughts went from forlorn thoughts about Ochako to confusion.

"Brekky-brekky! Time for breakfast!" Wakadou repeated, pushing his spoon into Midoriya's cheek a couple more times.

"Oh, it's that time of the day already?!"

Everyone busted up into laughter. His statement was stupid on its face. Breakfast was the first meal of the day, which came shortly after waking up.

"Oh. I just said that, didn't I? Sorry, guys, I'm not feeling too well."

"Izuku and—" Tori repeated.

"Enough!" Inawara interrupted. "You're going to give Midoriya a heart attack at this rate."

"This is good sandwich," Wakadou stated, voice muffled by the food in his mouth.

"Thank you, Mr. Kyouiki, for making breakfast," Saiseki thanked.

"Glad to do it this time," Mr. Kyouiki responded. "I'm not going to fix every meal though. That is for you all to do."

"Who here's a good cook?" Wakadou asked.

No one raised their hand, except for Saiseki who did so warily. "Maybe a little bit?" Saiseki responded. "I'm no master."

"Saiseki it is!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just because I have a little bit of skill doesn't mean I'm going to cook all of time."

"Yes, it does, slave."

Saiseki had no idea how to respond to that.

"I'm kidding; I'm kidding. We'll share the duty. It'll be 90% you, 10% the rest of us."

"That's hardly better!"

"Kidding again. How about we each cook for the day once a week?"

"There's six of us. What about the seventh day?"

"The seventh day, we'll get food for ourselves."

"Or maybe eat leftovers?" Midoriya proposed.

"Sure, why not?"

* * *

They started their first day training.

"This time, I have a different exercise for us to do. We will be doing some basic arm wrestling. I'd like to caution you, Dageki, from using your full power, because you'd tear up your body. Same goes for you, Midoriya, but because you'd probably snap the other person's arm clean off, not your own."

"Is this it?" Inawara asked.

"Yes. I still have what I need to teach you through the year, but are plans are a little … different now."

"Let's get this ball rolling! Whoever I'm up against is going to lose, unless your name is Izuku Midoriya, in which case, ****, I'm going to lose," Wakadou beckoned.

"Wakadou, you'll be going up against Kotori. Saiseki, you'll be up against Dageki. Inawara, that leaves you with Midoriya."

They sat down on opposite sides of a table.

Inawara felt tense.

"Don't worry, Inawara, I won't use my power. It'll be my raw strength against yours."

"Would you mind if I used mine?"

"That's fine."

Inawara shrunk slightly.

They started.

Katarai almost won at the very beginning, but Izuku pushed her back to center.

Suddenly, Izuku activated his quirk partially. He slowly overpowered her. He hadn't even realized he had activated his quirk until he had almost one, at which point he got terribly distracted, losing instantaneously.

"What just happened?" Inawara asked.

"I just activated my quirk on accident," Izuku answered. "That's why I started winning."

Wakadou beat Kotori handily, because Kotori couldn't stand the feeling of dirt on his hands, more so than even Saiseki or Midoriya.

Dageki beat Saiseki without effort.

Then Shigaraki arose from the ground, with four fingers clenched around Uraraka's neck. Tsuyu's prediction was spot-on, too spot-on. It seemed as if the frog girl had the pulse of Shigaraki like no one else did.

What surprised Midoriya the most was how quickly this happened.

"Deku, or should I say Midoriya, because this is personal." Shigaraki would still never use his first name. "Here's the deal. You or your little princess here is going to die today. You get to choose which one."

"How could you do something so terrible to Toga when she's part of your crew? And why do you pretend that it's really Ochako, when I know for certain that she is dead?! You just want to trick me!"

Shigaraki looked at Midoriya like he was an idiot. "Fine, I can give her to you now and kidnap her again later! Have it your way! You'll see that she's real."

Midoriya couldn't bend. "Ha, you want me to trust Himiko Toga, your minion, so she can murder me in my sleep."

"Why don't you prove to your prince that you are indeed Ochako Uraraka?" Shigaraki prompted Uraraka.

"Remember that time when we were doing stuff?" She was falling apart. She couldn't think of anything.

"Wow, that's a liar if I've ever heard one. Now, Shigaraki, die!" Midoriya shouted, shooting a small beam of energy at Shigaraki, who blocked it with his powers.

Shigaraki sunk into the ground, leaving Uraraka with the others. Uraraka laid on the ground shaken.

"At least he didn't kill any of us this time," Inawara reminded.

Now Midoriya was honestly starting to suspect that it _was_ Toga. "Hey, really, I don't want to put any pressure on you, but prove your identity."

"Remember that time when you slipped on the wet floor at the mall? Sorry, that's the first thing that came to mind. I mean—"

"So, it is you, Uraraka…" Midoriya stated. He reached out a hand for her.

She took it and he pulled her up.

Then he hugged her. "I'm so glad you're okay."

In the background, Inawara had her hands covering Kotori's mouth.

Ochako broke down. She had so much she wanted to say, but in this moment, she couldn't say a word. He was her hero, and she expected him to die to save her. She hadn't considered that she'd have the luxury of being by his side again.

Izuku followed suit. Standing up to Shigaraki was the most nerve-wracking experience he had ever gone through. He didn't deserve this, after how stupid he had been separating from her. He poured his tears out like he was anointing with oil.

They stood like this for a little while longer. Most of the others felt awkward.

"Damn…" Wakadou whispered in Dageki's ear. "Now that's a cute couple."

"She is really cute, isn't she?" Dageki responded in whisper. "I call dibs on her!"

"Whoa, now, can't you see she's already taken?" Wakadou continued in whisper.

"Midoriya took my quirk, so you can't say I can't take his girlfriend."

"If you say so…"

The embrace ended.

"Oh, you should probably introduce yourself," Midoriya suggested.

"Hi, I'm Ochako Uraraka! I used to be Deku's classmate when we attended UA High."

"I'm Mr. Kyouiki. Nice to meet you! I teach strength quirk curriculum. These are my students! The rest of the school kind of got destroyed, but here we are, training at a remote cabin now! Speaking of which, was that villain connected to the ones that destroyed the school?"

"I'd bet so," Midoriya responded.

"I can't have them knowing where we train. How are they always catching us? Wait… They might have a tracker on you, Izuku."

"A tracker?" Izuku asked. "I guess that must be it."

"We're relocating again, guys, as soon as we find the tracker," Mr. Kyouiki stated.

Then a small plane landed in the nearby clearing.

"Not again…"

A bright figure got out. His messy expanse of blond hair seemed to sprout up from his head. He had the number 60 on his chest. He took about thirty seconds to walk towards them. "Hey! Do you folks happen to know about the sudden decay trails that appeared here recently?"

"Shigaraki…" Midoriya blurted.

"What did you just say?"

"N—Nothing!"

"I don't know why I ought to be asking you folks anyway. Don't mind me. I'll just be taking some soil samples here."

"Tomura Shigaraki."

The man's disposition snapped in an instant. "How do you know that name?!"

"You just missed him."

The man shot a long-range taser at Midoriya.

Saiseki drew Midoriya out of the way.

Midoriya's right arm glowed brightly. "What business do you have with him?"

The man spoke into his radio. "Reinforcements needed, Vector 5528. Hostile group related to Tomura Shigaraki. Over."

Midoriya was struck speechless.

 **Another wonderful chapter for my wonderful readers! (flattery) :3 But really, thanks for reading! Pop a review in at your leisure.**


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